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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Claudia re...Walmart story.. . </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Your way of being in that situation
was authentic, pure, open, and BRILLIANT - "focusing on ....and holding the
complexity long enough to be able to re-align and identify actionable steps."
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Maria Ort </FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=claudia@kairosalliance.com
href="mailto:claudia@kairosalliance.com">Claudia Haack</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, March 22, 2006 9:44
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Conflict in community</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV class=Section1>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">Chris,</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">I had the
doubtful pleasure to be the project planner (city representative) on a “Keep
Wal-Mart Out” project many years ago. People were very positional, to
the point of threatening each other and on both ends of the spectrum. At
the time I didn’t know about open space – or lets just say I didn’t know that
there actually was a thing with a name. What I did know was that I had
only 6 months (the time of the development moratorium) and not a clue how to
deal with this. So, I started with some public hand-wringing (as in :
gosh, this is really complex, isn’t it? ), basically feeding the “positions”
back to everybody and letting each of them really “see” the other. Open
Space is much more elegant at this than I was then, but it is a similar
concept. I gave them a lot of “airtime”, at the same time gently
reminding them of the concept that indeed, we are all sitting in the same
boat, this is as good as it gets, and if this group of talented, dedicated
citizens cannot come up with a reasonable (or maybe even inspired) solution,
who could? Well, they did come up with a very inspired (award – winning)
solution which was unanimously adopted by the City Council
(!).</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">More
directly to your question, I think I would not focus on the positional aspects
of this, but the complexity. I believe that some of the frustration and
anger in situations like this actually comes from not being able to “hold” the
complexity long enough to be able to re-align and identify actionable next
steps. Sharing the acknowledgement that indeed, this is complex and that
that is in itself frustrating is a great step forward and possibly a positive
outcome for a “first” Open Space. </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">Claudia</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">Claudia
Haack</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><STRONG><B><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=navy
size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">KAIROS</SPAN></FONT></B></STRONG><FONT
face="Comic Sans MS" color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'"> Alliance
Inc.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">tel.
608.288.8315</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">fax.480.247.4824</SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Tahoma size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">-----Original
Message-----<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</SPAN></B> OSLIST
[mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] <B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">On
Behalf Of </SPAN></B>Chris Corrigan<BR><B><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN></B> Monday, March 20, 2006 10:17
AM<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</SPAN></B>
OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU<BR><B><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</SPAN></B> Conflict in
community</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Hi Folks:<BR><BR>An inquiry for you.<BR><BR>I've had a
couple of conversations this week with people involved with local school
boards in the United States. The common themes in these conversations
include high degrees of local conflict, positional politics, an extreme lack
of resources over which no one locally has any control and labour relations
that are best described as toxic. <BR><BR>IN a conversation today, one man
said that he wanted to try Open Space simply as a way to have all the parts of
the system understand each other. I suggested that this might not bring
the peace he was looking for, as people who would come to that kind of meeting
hoping to convince others of their righteousness would feel at the end of the
day that they were either winners or losers. I thought that result
wouldn't necessarily be transformational. When I asked him if instead we
couldn't issue an invitation to invite people essentially to answer the
question "how can we BE together differently in this system" he balked a
little at the notion of a smaller group of "like minded" individuals. Of
course I don;t see this as starkly black and white, but nevertheless, he
thought an "airing of the issues and a shared understanding" were most
important. <BR><BR>So my question goes to people who have worked in this
situation, with groups that are highly wedded to positions. What are the
kinds of invitations that allow for "airing," generated shared understanding,
and perhaps lead to transformative relationships? <BR><BR>By the way, I told
him I would do this for less than 1.5 days.<BR><BR>Thoughts and reflections
welcome.<BR><BR>Chris<BR clear=all><BR>-- <BR>CHRIS CORRIGAN<BR>Consultation -
Facilitation<BR>Open Space Technology <BR><BR>Weblog: <A
href="http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot">http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot</A><BR>Site:
<A
href="http://www.chriscorrigan.com">http://www.chriscorrigan.com</A><BR>Open
Space Resources: <A href="http://tinyurl.com/r94tj">
http://tinyurl.com/r94tj</A> * *
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